Memeorandum

May 17, 2012

Zimmerman Case - Eyewitness Contamination and Witness Deconstruction

Jeralyn Merritt tracks the evolution of a witness's story from her first 911 call on through various media appearances.

This is the 'mystery witness' on Anderson Cooper, who saw little and heard less, but has been getting more emphatic over time. My snark for the first Cooper interview - "Anyone autotuning that should include "Getting dark, too dark to see; feel like someone's knocking on heaven's door".

That said, the O'Mara defense team will be going through this exercise to prep for this possible witness. If they are smart (and want to hold down the billable hours), they will start with Ms. Merritt's work.

She had to do something when she found out that Officer T.A. Smith finished two jelly donuts before responding.

BTW - cboldt - have you found a single word concerning Officer Smith calling Zimmerman as the dispatcher promised Zimmerman she would have him do? If we're going to pursue post hoc ergo propter hoc through all iterations then the jelly stains Officer Smith's uniform should certainly be listed as evidence.

If Trayvon had defensive injuries on his knuckles should we assume Zimmerman had offensive wounds on the bridge of his nose nose and back of his head?

What is the difference between "offensive" and "defensive" wounds, esp. to the hands and knuckles? I would think that they are more likely offensive in this situation.

My other question though is, do we know the distance from which Zimmerman filed the shot that killed Martin? Left side and gun shot residue, stipling, etc., would seem corroborate that Martin was still somewhat close, and possibly on top of Zimmerman. But, what about angle of the shot and distance? Too much distance would seem to indicate that Martin was withdrawing, ending his assault. And, maybe ditto too sharp of an angle of the shot. Didn't quite understand what was out there so far in this area, so help would be appreciated.

-- What is the difference between "offensive" and "defensive" wounds, esp. to the hands and knuckles? --

I'm guessing, typically location. You put hand and arms up, hands open, when defending, and closed, or heel of palm, or striking edge of hand (chop chop) when on offense. Bruises and wounds on forearm would be considered defensive in nature.

Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations."

-- If this means that the angle was pretty much perpendicular to Martin's body, it would either need to be from a very short distance, or maybe with both of them standing. --

I'll have to review witness comments if anybody saw this exact moment, IIRC, one of them (noted above here) saw punching then heard shot, which, if compressed like that, has Zim shooting while laying down. I think his brother and father tell the tale as though Zim is still down when he shoots.

I think if they both stand, then Zim is "free to leave." Makes it much more difficult to convince others that you possess imminent fear. More likely, you feel relief and/or anger, when the beating stops.

Well right off the back, Serino infers a lot,
as captain of the neighborhood watch, in a complex, where there had been 400 calls in the space of a year, it was within Zimmerman's duty to stop someone he saw as suspicious, particularly in light of the very recent only three weeks past incident related by Burgess in the Reuters piece.

--What is the difference between "offensive" and "defensive" wounds, esp. to the hands and knuckles? I would think that they are more likely offensive in this situation.--

I was ridiculing whoever described 'defensive' wounds on Martin's knuckles. The only other wounds of note, besides the bullet hole, were Zimmerman's nose and the back of his head. Takes a tinfoil chapeau to take that set of facts and determine Martin had defensive wounds on his knuckles.

"How can this be--John F Kerry just came out with a strong endorsement of kerrey.."

Dennis Miller had a nice riff today on Kerry and the insanity of Massachusetts banning bake-sales and improperly permitted Ice Cream makers.

Commenting on the story of the Ice Cream guy getting raided yesterday by weapon wielding Environmental Police, Dennis quipped something like 'nothing will get done in Massachusetts until you fix the problem of excess sugar in Ketchup by banning Heinz products in Massachusetts. Then stand back and watch John Kerrey go bonkers:)

Janet, he cannot get away with saying he did not check it. That is SOP when a publication like that is being prepared. It would have gone back and forth with edits, (and I'm sure he probably even embellished it, like he embellished the presidential bios. It's a pattern.)

Janet to clarify my earlier post, checking a piece like that, and approving it, is SOP, not not checking it. There's always a lot of back and forth on those kind of pieces when they are being prepared for publication.

FBI sound report starts on page 146. They can't reach any conclusions because the screaming signal is mostly mixed with other voices, is low level, is distant and reverberant, and the part that isn't comingled with other voices is a voice under an extreme emotional state.

Page 149 - I take back my dig at the press on this count. It is Corey's office that provided a scanned black and white reproduction of the photo of Zimmerman's face.

Lots of pages of neighborhood newsletter and neighborhood watch cruft, but pages 182 and 183 are the treating EMT.

I did not see DeeDee's statement, but I ran through the pages pretty quickly.

Obama's record seems to change when he needs it to. The removal of his Kenyan birth seems to confirm that.

Let's compare another changed piece of Obama history, from his own site, and ask ourselves why did he change it?

"Lie:

Obama Is Not a Natural Born Citizen

Truth:

Senator Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, after it became a state on August 21st, 1959. Obama became a citizen at birth under the first section of the 14th Amendment

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”"

“When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.‘s children.

Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.”

--FBI sound report starts on page 146. They can't reach any conclusions because the screaming signal is mostly mixed with other voices, is low level, is distant and reverberant, and the part that isn't comingled with other voices is a voice under an extreme emotional state.--

Sounds like the FBI needs to buy that dude's [Owens?] voice ID software.

On a quick scan, I don't see a report of either being processed by the DNA lab. I wonder what the crime scene processing folks saw and bagged. I don't see a report of that, either, just a generic "items were marked, photoed, then removed."

I speculate somebody processing the scene swabbed blood or other stuff from concrete, maybe some blood evident on grass; then bagged it.